baby birds

Those little wings are so much more developed in just two days. If you look back to Monday’s post, you can see how much he’s grown.

I keep calling it a him — of course I have no idea if it’s a male or female Carolina Wren!

Tomorrow morning will be my last chance to check on him for a while. We’re heading to Spain tomorrow, so I’ll have to get photos emailed to me from family staying at home. He may have fledged before we get back, but I hope not.

When Mama wren flies out of the garage early in the morning, I sneak up on the step stool to get a peek at our little guest-in-the-hat.

Baby wren is growing by leaps and bounds.

Barely 5 days old, it now really looks like a bird.

Its eyes are still closed, but the wings and the beak are now clearly evident. I think it has tripled in size since I first saw it on Friday.

The Mama sits in there with it most of the day, but doesn’t appear to by flying in and out very often. She seems unfazed by the construction being done in our driveway as guys are sawing wood out there for our new wood floors inside. She’s just focused on that little bundle of joy.

I doubt the other eggs will open now that it’s been 5 days since this one hatched, but I didn’t think this one would make it either, so I’m not giving up hope. In fact, I’m not ever giving up hope again!

After the egg/nest debacle from 10 days ago, I’ve been anxiously watching the comings and goings of Mama Carolina Wren.

You may remember that I thought the eggs were no longer viable after being in the nest for a month, and I put them in the trash. Til I realized that there were more eggs than when I’d first looked – meaning she’d laid another clutch that might be viable. I wrote about that ordeal in a previous post, put the nest and eggs back very carefully and crossed my fingers.

Last night when I was walking into the house through the garage, I thought I heard the tiniest squeak coming from the nest. I stopped and listened – nothing. But later I saw the hat (and nest) swaying just a bit and wondered again if something was going on in there.

Mama Wren was sitting high up on the eggs, and fairly visible to me, whereas before she was far down in the nest on the eggs where I couldn’t see her.

So I took a peek when she was out of the nest.

What a wonderful sight – a tiny little creature – just born – wiggling around down among the other eggs. If you look very closely (maybe click on the photo to enlarge it) you can make out the face on the new baby.

Honestly, after all this watching and waiting, I felt like I was the Mama!

This morning I took a picture when Mom and Dad were gone — they are both now working on feeding duty.

Hatching can take 24-48 hours and there are 6 more eggs in the nest. Some may be from the first clutch, and not viable, but our new little friend might be getting some siblings over the next few days.

You may have seen on my blog that a mama Carolina wren was nesting in a sombrero hanging on our garage wall. She was there for several weeks before Easter. As soon as I found the nest, we kept the door open, but who knows how many times she might have been locked away from them before that.

So today I decided it was time (they are supposed to hatch in 14-16 days) and I put the hat nest and eggs into the garbage can.

But when I did that, I counted 11 eggs and there were only 7 before.

I don’t know why I did it after I’d already gotten rid of the eggs, but I looked online just one more time for what happens when the eggs don’t hatch and what the mama does. All the other times I googled it I came up with nothing, but today I found a resource that says that birds will sometimes lay a second clutch of eggs later on top of the unhatched ones, since the nest is already made.

Oh no!

That would explain why there were now 5 more eggs.

So after I had a really good cry, my Mom convinced me to go out and try to save it all. I used a paper towel folded over like a pot holder to put the nest back in the sombrero. Then I took a tablespoon and gently lifted all the eggs I could find out of the trash can and into the nest and then I hung the sombrero back in the garage.

Checked a little bit ago and mama is sitting on the eggs again. I just hope there are some viable ones in there – think I got 7 back into the nest – hope some of them are the new ones, but that was all I could find. One broke and I couldn’t get the others.

At least I tried and I feel better. And I learned a lesson. Well, maybe two lessons – don’t move nests until there is absolutely no adult activity, and … keep the garage door closed all the time so they won’t make nests in my garage.

But there could be many more in the garden where birds are sneaking in and out and hiding from me.

But even with all these beautiful and inviting homes, the swallows are nesting under the tall rock front porch ceiling again. Mama wren is nesting in the sombrero hanging in the garage — shown in my previous post here.

I’m always nervous about cleaning the houses out because the experts at Wild Birds Unlimited tell me that birds can be nesting in them at any time of the year.

This one was a gift from my parents for Christmas.This one is in the front walkway bed on a stick so it’s the least likely to have inhabitants.My converted gourd has seen better days — but it was too cute when I first got it (especially since I didn’t have to hollow out the gourd myself!)Ok, this isn’t a birdhouse, but it is a butterfly house and it’s cute, so it made this cut.This is for the particularly patriotic birds.And this is the townhouse the Titmice are squatting in right now.Not sure if there is anyone in this one — but it’s probably my favorite.

We’re had a wren flying in and out of the garage now for weeks. We tried to keep her from making the nest, but now that we’ve discovered it, we’re keeping the garage open so she can stay with her eggs.

This is an old Sombrero left over from a fiesta-themed summer party. Imagine my surprise to find that it’s become a stylish condo for Mrs. Wren.

Her cousin was nesting in the garage last spring — here she’s in a lovely blue and white porcelain flower pot. Sadly, opening and closing of the garage door before we knew she was there kept her from the nest too long and there were no babies last spring.